Former Facebook exec's 'guilt' over site's creation

A former Facebook executive says he feels “tremendous guilt” over the creation of the social networking site.

Speaking at a Stanford Graduate School of Business event, Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice president for user growth, said “we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”.

The 41-year-old urged people to take a “hard break from some of these tools”.
He added: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works.
“No civil discourse, no co-operation; misinformation, mistruth.
“And it’s not an American problem – this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.
“We are in a really bad state of affairs right now.”

Image: Mr Palihapitiya says we are in a ‘bad state of affairs’
Mr Palihapitiya also revealed he hardly uses the site anymore because of the “huge tension” it creates.

“If you look at my Facebook feed I probably have posted less than 10 times in seven years,” he said.
Mr Palihapitiya made the comments in November but they are only just being reported.
He said the sites can leave users feeling “vacant and empty”, but went on to say that the company “overwhelmingly does positive good in the world”.
He said: “We curate our lives around this perceived sense of perfection because we get rewarded in these short term signals – hearts, likes, thumbs up.

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“And we conflate that with value and we conflate that with truth.
“Instead, what it is is fake brittle popularity.”